"Maybe? It can't hurt to try!"

Howard said as frost crept over his limbs. He shivered slightly, his hat flapping in the wind as the two titans clashed. Regirock's Hammer Arm was met with Regice's Superpower, which caused the ground to shake as two living mountains threatened to crack the world around them.

They were perfectly matched, as they were designed to be. With the power displayed, Howard could believe they were meant to chain down and fell Eternatus.

"Besides," he says as he took Nikola's hand gratefully and were hoisted up onto their Arcanine. "This can't keep happening. Gotta stop it here, before it becomes a habit."

Their Arcanine was very soft and fluffy.

"Hop to it, wonder brain."

---

NIKOLA SAMSA

She was strong. Stronger than him. It was ridiculous how easily she overpowered him, even in a frenzied state. Even if she were functional and not reduced to a scrambling, terrified husk, she would've been capable of pushing him away. Even if she had forgotten, he remembered.

She had pushed him away before, but he had pushed her back first.

______ felt her claw him. He couldn't tell if it was her blood or his. He had never seen her break like this, into a million pieces that left her as little more than wreck.

It hurt.

"Fuck." What did he do? Wait for her attack to subside? That could take minutes. Hours, if the rubble shifted. She'd kill herself by then. He didn't know what to do. Who even was ______ to ___, anymore? Did it matter? He took a few gulps of air, and took a deep breath as she clawed against him, tearing his eyepatch off.

She couldn't breathe? Fine.

Quick as a viper, he leaned in to push air past her lips with his own.

He'd breathe for her.

---

june sleigh

"Do that, and perhaps the concept of justice still exists."

He walked down the steps, past Eddie. Shoes clacked against stone, and faint lines of red energy shined against his skin as he stopped. An artificial form, powered by the enemy of mankind. His eye flickered as he stopped, and joints creaked. What punishment could the League truly mete upon him once the war was over, if he killed Eternatus?

Did it even matter? Mankind would be saved, and that virtue would outweigh any human sin they could place upon his shoulders. Their sentence, regardless, would be an act of justice that Eddie would be obligated to enforce.

There would be no humanity to his death, even as it was sentenced to him by humans.

"Well, Eddie..." He clapped the man on the shoulder as he walked off. "Defeat me if you can. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm the weakest admin, after all."

He smiled without humor.

"I won't cause a fuss in Dewford. I've got a few things to take care of before I leave. Hopefully that won't be a problem."

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

"Of course I'm gonna make excuses. You want a good fight? I'll call up the God General or Underboss Quinn." He put a hand on his hip, cape flapping slightly as he raised an eyebrow from beneath his helmet. "I'm just..."

He shrugged halfheartedly, surrounded by frozen bodies of those still living. Their features had been buried in several inches of ice, turning them into vague silhouettes rather than detailed sculptures.

"...not that strong."

But hey, that was why he didn't need to fight. That was what Dynamax was for. It was the great equalizer. Enveloped in Eternatus's power, even an ant could challenge kings, and even Rocket Admins could fight the Top Champion. Meloetta danced across the battlefield, changing form to the tune of a long-lost song.

"You know Regidrago?" Yet what got Howard's attention was something else. He stepped forward at her claim, engrossed. "You've seen it? How? Where? Land Hoenn hasn't been seen in years."

Ice flew towards him. Much of it shattered on his armor or his Sygna Suit, while a few choice pieces cut at his shoulders and armpits and knees. Blood welled. He hissed in pain. Her words had excited him, and thus he had gotten greedy. That wouldn't happen again. Especially if she did it twice.

Arceus above, he hated avatars. Above, Regice's pattern flashed as it Locked On to Meloetta.

"Answer the question."

---

Melody Miro

Occasionally, ______ wondered why June spent so much time outside her apartment. He had chalked it up to needing money and delivering goods. Couriers and deliverywomen needed only their ride and the open sky above. A place to stay was unnecessary, and June did little but work to staunch the wound that debt had caused in her life.

He wondered now if she simply hated being inside that small room. Why else would she torture herself with nothing but constant work? A bike was more open than a car. Violet more so than a bike.

There was no room for words, hardly any room for breathing, and definitely no room for life. Rationality vanished between cracks of rubble and left them with mania and pain. His leg hurt. She had trampled it in her attempt to move over him, and he let out a dull moan of pain.

The air was too choked with dust to scream.

"You can't shift it. Wait for Regirock and Regice to break free. They're used to things like this." ______'s voice was cracked with pain as blood dripped onto his face from June's incessant digging. There was nothing glorious about a wounded animal digging for the surface. Her fingernails cracked and split and threatened to drown this space in blood. "Stop!"

She didn't. Even he could recognize a panic attack. He had them constantly. ______ reached out and grabbed her turning her towards him in this minute space.

"Look at me." Her eye lights blinded him. "Look at me!"

His breath rattled.

"What's your name? What's my name?"

---

june sleigh

She knows based on tradition. He knows based on history. The aged Kimono Girl respects repeated deeds and actions, which eventually cement into the concept known as 'tradition' as generations turn a foundation of faith into a temple perceived only as truth. Howard knows from recent history that Kyle Lopez brought Ho-oh to heel.

He suspects that they are both right, but neither of them will get the opportunity to verify that fact because Kyle Lopez is dead, and neither of them can ask the Rainbow Pokémon of today what yesterday was like. For such a being, yesterday does not exist. There is only today.

Ho-oh, therefore, is the youngest and oldest Pokémon in existence. It has only ever lived for one day, after all.

"And you think that, once it realizes that the one benefitting from its patronage has passed, it will revive its chosen hero to pick up the sword and continue its great fight?" Howard closed his eye, thoughtful. "Interesting."

His eye does not open for several moments. Instead, he allows his mind to delude him into believing that they are at a finer estate, where the incenses are exotic and rich and the battles are as intense as the blaze that burned the Bell Tower hundreds of years ago. As long as his eye remains shut, he can pretend.

Yet eventually, it must open. So it does.

"What a marvelous fan. If you'll forgive me, I have a theory that I'd like to run by you." He does not speak of Galar's prince again. It is a sore topic, full of personal failure and jealousy and contempt and rage. They are here to discuss myths, not mortals. "Is it true that all Kimono Girls use Eevees? Do you think that using a Pokémon that can split up into several different colors depending on the circumstances is inspired by the Tin Tower's patron?"

It's a realization that he can only act upon now, with this woman sitting next to him, smoking her pipe and preening with her fan. Though to say Yotsukura Yotsugami could 'preen' seemed like a mocking thing to utter.

Thus, he said nothing of it. He merely waited.

---

Yotsukura Yotsugami

There was no need to justify logic in the land of the dead. It simply did not exist. If Howard were to reason a guess, he would assume that to move forward, a price was required. In order to impact the world of the living, one had to spend time shaping reality with their own two hands.

In the land of the dead, why not turn one's soul into fuel to fulfill the same things?

"This is so fucking weird. I've never seen anything like this in any tomb I've explored." Adrian is blessed with the knowledge that his superior was genuinely surprised and wary. Even when he looked at Adrian's flickering remnant, he looked uneasy. "I don't even know if that's you in there, or some sort of trick."

His eye flicked to the unconscious body below. What if Adrian Malcolm was dead? It was more likely than Howard was willing to admit.

The brazier stood before them. Decaying cloth hid the truth, and the spirits of the dead revealed it through a torch of decay. Howard's eye flicked from Adrian's spirit to the brazier.

This felt wrong.

"Adrian Malcolm, set your soul ablaze. Find purpose in incineration, and find the resolve to keep living."

---

Adrian Malcolm

The question made the admin's lip twitch. Not in discontent, but in amusement. Funny, how his work at the museum and his personal goal were beginning to coalesce. Team Rocket wanted him to seize giants for them. He wanted giants to defeat Eternatus. Gideon simply wanted knowledge.

Why couldn't Gideon Graves have found him sooner? The worlds he could've seen. The knowledge he could've acquired. The lives spared would've been incalculable.

All of that had disappeared because of an answering machine.

"Big Pokémon were spotted, and they were all ancient. Did you really think I'd refrain from digging around in the sands? Me?" Think of what we could've uncovered!" His eye was wide, alert. It stared at a Volbeat as it flew by, before being snatched up by Celpho.

A bug of his own.

"What we did uncover. Gideon, I found a piece of Hoenn's history in the sand." His eye sparkled with a mixture of joy and exhilaration. "Registeel."

---

GIDEON GRAVES
CATCH THE BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"...!"

Eduardo Hisakawa's words struck a chord, and he was rewarded with the rare honor of genuinely disarming the Rocket Admin responsible for his home's destruction and for Petalburg as a whole. His heart was pure and his heart was just, and it genuinely caused the admin to blanche. He blinked once and looked away.

When Howard spoke again, his voice was soft.

"I see. You really believe in a girl you've only begun to understand? You're picking her side, knowing that there's a chance that I'm not lying to you and that she will ruin you?" He looked up at the monument of his sins. "No."

The sky was perfectly clear today, he realized.

"You never even considered the possibility."

There was a horrible moment where he considered throwing down his sword in an attempt to become worthy of such blind faith. This was how humanity was going to defeat Eternatus. Ants would bind together and bring down a giant by gnawing at its joints until it buckled under their combined weight.

If the world consisted entirely of Eduardo Hisakawas, it'd be a better place.

But it's not. There's only one, and he stood in the admin's way. Thus he does not throw down his sword.

"When Eternatus rouses from its slumber, I will fight by the sheriff's side and vanquish the evil that has cursed our species for millennia. On that, we will be allies. Even if you hate me and stab me in the back, I won't turn my back on Eternatus to fight you. That is the only enemy that truly matters."

His gaze hardened.

"But until that day, I will do as I am bid by Team Rocket. I will take their cities. If you have a problem with that, come and stop me. I invite you to try." He smiled wryly. "I am not 'fated' to be defeated by you. It has been spoken."

---

Eduardo Hisakawa

The last thing Howard saw before being enveloped in stone was the glimmering shine of Tera Crystals.

The last thing he felt was June's arms holding him tight, lest he slip on his leg and screech in pain.

The last thing he heard was her scream as stone wrapped them in its embrace, cold and unfeeling as their giants lunged forward in an attempt to stop the cave from collapsing. Yet Regieleki was a being of energy, Regirock was too slow, and Regice was a being formed from icy glass.

Giants could not save humans from the earth they were born from. They could only watch as much of the cave collapsed, leaving a small pocket for the Boundless and her companion. Howard and June should have died, yet they didn't. Maybe it was the 'fate' they had discussed earlier, or maybe it was sheer dumb luck. Yet there was one undeniable fact.

They were buried in a tomb, and darkness enveloped them. Howard couldn't see June, but he could feel her touch, her heart, and her breath.

A breath that was accelerating. Rapidly. A heart that was beating. Rapidly.

"June?" His voice was rough from the dust, and small from what had occurred. "June...?"

Then, in his heart of hearts, he felt her break.

---

june sleigh

Ana's line of thinking was hopeful and totally deranged, but the archaeologist respected her perspective. If everyone in the world was as openhanded as her, there would be no reason for everyone to fight. Yet the world did not consist of several billion Anastasia Harmons. It consisted of only one.

The one standing in front of him, talking excitedly about paintings.

Pictures on an easel that drove her forward. Passions and dreams were what moved people, just as much as home or hearth or wealth. He respected that commitment. In a world that demanded that people pick a side, Ana simply did what she wished. There was a purity to that as she hopped around.

"No worries, I have a trick for it." He lifted the briefcase and held it over his shoulder like an average salaryman. He hardly needed to flex a muscle. The suitcase bobbled with the power of magnetism. He didn't know how they worked, but Magnet Rise was a useful move. "I'm magical. Pretty cool trick, right?"

Truthfully, he wasn't particularly strong. He was more of a desk jockey than a strongman, but seeing was believing.

"If you ever paint anything new, I'd love to see it. Buy it even." He scratched his chin with his free hand. "If you're ever looking for work, there are historically relevant pieces that I'd be interested in seeing restored."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Interested?"

---

Anastasia Harmon

There was a saying once uttered by Melody's predecessor, according to the annals of history. The true wording of the saying was known only to two living, for the ghost of Kyle Lopez could utter no words and tell no tales. Yet the saying known to the masses of Hoenn went as follows:

"I'm the smartest. Matias is the strongest. But you, Melly? You have the most spirit."

And she showed it. Grunts fell by her mere presence, betrayed by discarded objects and rubble and the memories of the slain. Song was her sword, music was her shield, and the baton was her conduit into turning reality into fantasy. She could, quite literally, turn dreams into reality.

"Champion?"

Laughter rang out over the battlefield, tinting her music with ominous hues. Massive sparks of red energy erupted from Route 102, filling the air with the familiar stench of Dynergy. A titan swelled up in the distance, augmented by the Power Spot that emerged on the route.

"Who're you to warn us of anything, Melody of the Elite Four? We don't take orders from Kyle's bench warmer." The grunts laughed, cheering as Regice towered behind them. A Max Snowfall descended from the heavens, freezing the route in ice. Laughter died on frozen lips. "Tsk."

A man in armor stepped forward, shoes crunching on ice and snow. He looked up, Melody's flying platform reflecting in his helmet.

"I missed. Dynamax is a sledgehammer, not a scalpel."

---

Melody Miro

He nodded once, approving. If she could learn, then she could teach others. Thus the cycle could complete, until all of the world knew how to stop Dynamax. What a world that would be.

"Alright, now remember what I mentioned about the legs. Focus on one. If you're lucky, it'll tip over. If you're not, it'll just grow lopsided." He advised as he used his Teleport to warp near Diana, before warping even further away, to sit on top of a boulder. "It's hard for these things to right themselves."

Howard teleported again, until he was even further away. He gestured for Diana to follow him as his Coalossal invoked a Max Flare that turned much of the desert into bubbling, smoking glass. Water evaporated, but the intense heat was where Walking Wakes thrived.

The Hydro Pump glanced off the leg, striking the Dynergy Barrier. An Earth Power erupted near its leg, disrupting the ground near its foot.

"Watch out for those barriers! They're tough!"

---

Diana Cavendish